RESEARCH NEWS

Persuading influential medical centers to adopt electronic medical records helps speed adoption by their neighboring hospitals, according to a new report.

A new study detailed in the current issue of Management Science focused on what mechanisms could be used to influence the diffusion of technological innovations at hospitals.

Using a “social contagion” model, the researchers – Corey Angst and Ken Kelley of the University of Notre Dame, Ritu Agarwal of the University of Maryland; and V. Sambamurthy of Michigan State University — studied the diffusion of electronic medical records from 1975 to 2005 in almost 4,000 U.S. hospitals.